Monday, January 1, 2018

Gold Award Spotlight: Interactive Games at Equi-Kids

Larson has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award—the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Larson has been a Girl Scout for 13 years.

To earn her Gold Award, Larson created an educational program called EquiQuad: Interactive Lesson Games. These games were implemented into horseback riding lessons at Equi-Kids, a local therapeutic riding program for riders living with disabilities.

Larson created four game stations for riders and their instructors to use while riding trails at Equi-Kids. The games provide riders with a new tool for interacting with their horses.

“People with disabilities often face adversity in their daily lives, on top of the daily physical or social challenges they encounter,” Larson said. “Equi-Kids can be a fantastic escape from the demanding outside world, and I wanted to make the experience in this safe place as engaging as possible.”

Before creating the games, Larson served as a volunteer at the organization for three years.

Larson developed and built each game station. She then gave presentations to students at Norfolk Academy and at a diversity conference about why she considers her project important— to “advance diversity in a multicultural world.”

Larson’s interactive educational program will be sustained by the riders and instructors at Equi-Kids.

She said she hopes the games will help everyone who uses them to always “remain lighthearted and optimistic while dealing with obstacles.”

What We DoWe serve nearly 10,000 girls throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. With the guidance of nearly 5,000 dedicated and trained volunteers, girls discover the fun, friendship, and power of girls together.